Hon. Leo Housakos: Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Gold, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem, testified before the Senate Banking Committee. He has recognized that he and his lieutenants in the Bank of Canada have gotten it all wrong when it comes to inflation. He has also recognized that they have completely misjudged the strength of inflation. Mr. Macklem said:

If you go back to January, we were saying that inflation would peak at about 5%, and by now you start to see some signs it’s coming down. It’s now 6.7% and it’s going to take longer to come down. . . .

Government leader, will you acknowledge that Prime Minister Trudeau and his government should start recognizing the lead taken by the Governor of the Bank of Canada and recognize that they have also gotten it all wrong when it comes to inflation? Furthermore, will you also agree with me that it’s high time that Mr. Trudeau starts thinking about monetary policy?

Senator Housakos: Again, with all due respect, government leader, the Committee of Internal Economy can meet at any time, as you know. If this issue was as important as it is, why would you wait until the last moment to get this done? Again, with all due respect, on decisions of this nature — which are very important decisions — I, for one, do not believe they should be taken in a vacuum by a bunch of leaders on this floor. These are decisions that impact this institution and should respect the protocol in terms of administrative protocol. The Committee of Internal Economy had authority to meet even while we were on a break, had the authority review this in an appropriate fashion and report to this chamber with a course of action that we could have dealt with accordingly.

Senator Housakos: Senator Gold, let me understand this clearly. The motion was not debated at the Standing Senate Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration. This committee did not bring witnesses in terms of senior administration or other health authorities to come to a debate or a conclusion on the motion. The motion did not trickle down from the committee after discussion to caucuses for their input. The motion you tabled is a government motion. Yet you tell us this has nothing to do with the government. How do you explain that?

Senator Housakos: The first step in correcting mistakes is to recognize you’ve made mistakes. I see from your answer that there isn’t a willingness to recognize that you miscalculated as a government.

Government leader, this year the average Canadian family of four will spend $966 more on groceries than they did a year ago. In March of this year, grocery bills were 8.7% higher than just one year before. Eggs are up 8.5%, more than last month; milk is up 7.7%; pasta is up a whopping 17.8%. These aren’t fancy delicacies; they are basic food items. This comes at a time when families are already paying more for housing, for gas, for transporting their kids from home to school and back and forth. The Governor of the Bank of Canada is now saying inflation could go even higher. The word “transitory” certainly isn’t being used anymore, which was a favourite of the Minister of Finance in your government.

Senator Gold, how can you possibly defend your government’s high tax expense policies when they continue to fuel inflation, and families are already being stretched to their complete limits?

Hon. Leo Housakos: Honourable senators, I rise to speak overwhelmingly in favour of Senator Plett’s amendment.

Honourable colleagues, when the going gets tough, the tough have to get going. In times when our nation is facing an existential crisis such as this, its institutions have to be ready to weather the storm. All of our institutions have to be ready to rise to the occasion, and there is no institution more important in a time of crisis than Parliament, the House, the Senate, our courts, our laws and our governments. They have to show up and provide leadership in these difficult times.

I’ve said this time and time again with regret: I believe that Canadians feel that these institutions — which have been put in place to ensure that democracy functions and that we rise to the challenges we face — have let Canadians down. We’ve seen this in the ever-growing frustration both with the government and with these institutions. We’ve seen it in the protests in the streets across the country and with Canadians who are frustrated because they feel it is tougher than ever before to get by and to put food on the table for their children. It is tougher than ever before to dream of a better future than their parents had.

We are all responsible, given the privileges we have in these institutions, to provide leadership during this time. Leadership is not provided when we have measures that are designed to protect us better than a truck driver, or someone working in a pharmacy or grocery store, or a factory worker.

I mentioned a month ago that I was in Montreal visiting a place called Jack Victor. It’s a great business in the downtown core of Montreal, with 800 employees. Those 800 employees are at work every morning and they put in their 40 hours per week. They are in close proximity, just like the vast majority of workers in this country.

My wife has been getting up every morning for two years to go to the Jewish General Hospital to provide services for the many Canadians who need care with the unfortunate virus of COVID. Yet in this institution — I’ve said it before and I will say it again — our productivity during this time of the most existential crisis facing our country has gone down. Our committees meet only half as often as they did in the past. The output for this government in terms of legislation — forget about COVID — over the last seven years is pitiful. In the last seven years, this chamber has produced the least amount of government legislation in the 153-year history of the Senate. Go and do the research in the library; you will be surprised. However, we did pump out hundreds of billions of dollars in shorter sitting times than ever before in the history of this country.

I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat, colleagues: Each and every one of us, when we make investments to renovate our house or buy a car or a pair of shoes, we sometimes reflect on that harder than on the tens of billions of dollars we’ve churned out of this place in COVID spending — with the government threatening us, saying that we have to stand up for Canadians. Number one, we haven’t been consistent as institutions, and that’s why Canadians are so frustrated. Number two, much of what we’ve done over the past two years is on the verge of leading to historic inflation, which will lead to a historic economic crisis — which, again, this institution will, in part, have to account for.

The government leader rose today and said, “Trust me; this motion is a short-term measure, and it’s not something the government wants to do in perpetuity.” It sounds like the same thing we heard a month ago, when we had the same debate. He says, “We are only going to extend it for a month.” Let me tell you, colleagues, as Senator Plett so appropriately pointed out in his speech, right across this country, health care professionals — the scientists who have been giving advice to the provinces and are the leaders when it comes to providing public health care advice — have been lifting mandates. Every single province, one after another, has been lifting passport mandates and masking mandates. They’re allowing Canadians to congregate. You are absolutely right, senator, Jurassic Park is back and functional, with thousands of people. This afternoon my son is watching a Blue Jays game with thousands of people at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Canadians are walking into arenas across this country — 20,000 per night — to watch NHL hockey and junior hockey. Our workers are back at work. Our hospitality industry is back at work. Thousands of Canadians are back meeting socially, celebrating Easter, Ramadan and all the other celebrations — yet the Senate of Canada is going to stay pat. We will continue mandates. We will continue to work virtually. As I said, the real problem is not that I don’t like working virtually — I like being in the comforts of my house as much as anyone else — but at the end of the day, our output is just not there, colleagues.

Our committees, the most important work that this institution has done, are just not pumping out the work that we are being paid to do. It has been two years right now that we are sort of ragging the puck on this. I think we should be leading the way because our politicians in this country have been telling Canadians to vaccinate. The quicker we vaccinate, the quicker we will get back to normal. Well, colleagues, we are 83% or 84% double vaccinated in this country. I know people who are quadruple vaccinated. Some Canadians have their fourth dose already. If governments have been telling Canadians to double vaccinate and we will get back to normal, yet we are quadruple and triple vaccinated, then the leadership of this country are saying, “You, the taxpayers, will get back to normal, but not us. We will stay here and continue to work in our reduced capacity.” That doesn’t make sense. As parliamentarians, I think we need to align ourselves with what is going on across the country — not only lead but at least align ourselves with what Canadians are facing on a day-to-day basis.

We have rapid tests. We are all mature, intelligent people. Those of us who are vulnerable should take those extra steps. That’s what is going on right now in society as we learn to live with COVID. I don’t see why, when people who are adapting themselves with those realities, 95 or so senators here in Ottawa can’t do the same. I think if we expect it of Canadians, we should be doing the same thing. There are plenty of rapid tests available. Those of us who are coming to Ottawa are functioning — and more of us have been doing so over the last few months, thank God — and taking the steps to be respectful when we meet, but we need to get back to work. The country, more than ever, needs us to get back to work.

Another part of the debate here that concerns me — and I’ve heard it from Senator Plett in his speech today, but I heard it from a bunch of colleagues over the last few days — is that the Internal Economy Committee did not have deliberations on this issue; it was not discussed at Internal Economy. At the end of the day, it is my understanding — and I’ve been in this place now for a considerable amount of time — that senators run the Senate. If important decisions of this nature — that is, of us working hybrid, or virtually, or whatever the case may be — are not being taken in an open and transparent fashion at the Internal Economy Committee and transcended down to the various caucuses and groups for discussion, there’s a problem. I chaired the Internal Economy Committee for a number of years. The current Speaker chaired it for a number of years. There is a longstanding understanding in this chamber that the Internal Economy Committee is a body of consensus, that the operating body of this chamber works in consultation with the leadership and with its various groups and it takes decisions on a consensus basis. Not only have we gotten away from that principle, which is disturbing, but somewhere along the line the leader of my caucus and myself are unable to understand the driving force behind this decision.

We talk about science. Forget about science. From an administrative point of view, I want to know who took the decision. Was it the government leader in a vacuum? Was it the chair of the Internal Economy Committee in a vacuum? Did they discuss it in a back corridor or in some corner? Senator Gold is looking at me with confusion. I don’t know the answer. Clearly, if we didn’t have an open and transparent discussion at the Internal Economy Committee about this particular motion, where was the discussion had? You can participate in the debate, government leader and shed some light on it, but it’s an important issue. We’ve seen time and time again an erosion in these parliamentary institutions and an erosion when it comes to us holding the government to account. I understand. It is not something executive branches of government like.

We all know that when leaders sit in the opposition benches in the House of Commons, they have all kinds of time for democracy and the use of Parliament and all parliamentary institutions. However, the moment they become prime minister, they think they have a mandate from the people and they shouldn’t be accountable to anyone. I don’t believe that. Forgive me, but I believe we have an important role here. The number one role we have is not only to scrutinize government legislation but also to hold the government to account and to ask tough questions when it comes to mandates, vaccines, COVID relief and aid spending. It is not just a rubber stamp.

I appreciate that the government wants to have a virtual and hybrid Parliament in perpetuity. They can get away with it certainly in the House of Commons because there is a minority government, but nonetheless there is a coalition government right now between the NDP and the Liberals, and they have a pretty good free rein. I like to believe that most members here are genuinely independent and they do believe it is important to hold the government to account, particularly during these moments of existential crisis. It is not just the role of a small group of opposition senators. It is incumbent on all of us because we do have independence in this chamber by virtue of our tenure and the fact that we are not accountable to any prime minister, including the prime minister who appointed the vast majority of you. The truth is, the moment you are summoned to this institution, you are accountable to one person, and that is the Canadian people. I take that oath seriously and I know that majority of you do as well.

When we look at the body of evidence and what is going on across the country right now, mandates are being dropped; Canadians are going back to work. We have the challenge of needing to get the productivity of the nation back to where it was. It is the biggest challenge that faces our economy and our people, including the productivity of this institution.

It is morally important, more than ever before, for us to do our work in a diligent, tangible and safe fashion, respectful of each other and respectful of the challenges that we have. But colleagues, it is crystal clear that we are going into another phase of this pandemic. We have to be ready for it. We have to deal with it. We have to lead the way. But first, we have to catch up and align ourselves with provincial governments, with health care advice and with the rest of the country.

For the reasons that I wanted to outline — I didn’t plan on entering the debate, but I think these are some important points that I wanted to share with everyone — I will be supporting Senator Plett’s amendment. I think it is only logical. I don’t think it is far-fetched. What Senator Plett is really asking for is a week and a half to do the diligent work that it seems to me has not been done by our administrative body in this institution, the Internal Economy Committee, in order to find out if this extreme measure, namely, to go to the end of the month of June, is really necessary. At the end of the day, I don’t see the necessity. Someone is going to have to make a compelling case of why we need to continue to do this. It is not enough to say the House of Commons has done it because, as I said in my argument, the fact that, for political expediency, the House has decided to not be serious about their work, doesn’t necessarily mean that we have any obligation to follow.

I think the amendment from Senator Plett is very reasonable, namely, to do the due diligence that hasn’t been done and, as of May 9, to be able to take a firm decision about us continuing with this hybrid virtual system or deciding to put an end to it with all the facts before us. Thank you, colleagues.

Hon. Leo Housakos: Will Senator Gold take a question?

Senator Housakos: Honourable senators, again, I’m a little bit perturbed by the debate amongst the leadership here in this chamber, on this floor. You were very quick, Senator Gold, to agree with my friend Senator Saint-Germain about how the chamber here has authority over the Internal Economy Committee and all committees. Of course, senators pick and choose whenever the chamber has the authority to drive and guide committees.

As I said earlier in my speech, the Committee of Internal Economy is the administrative body of this chamber. I still, government leader, find it disturbing that on such an important issue that falls within their purview, they did not deal with it transparently, actively and openly, before it came up the pike here to this chamber. Ultimately, this chamber is the final authority.

The question to you, government leader, is: Why did you rush to put this motion to the Senate floor without it being appropriately debated and reviewed by the Committee of Internal Economy? Will you also agree that before the government takes any measure to reduce the capacity of this chamber to operate at 100%, its maximum capability, that you would consult the Committee of Internal Economy, the members of the Committee of Internal Economy and everyone else involved, before you move a government motion like this?